Desperately looking for mango yogurt

When we arrived in Singapore, at the serviced apartment, we discovered a mango yogurt from Switzerland and liked it very much. As we moved to our place we started to buy it and continued to do so until about a month ago.

Singapore is an island and everything we eat or drink is shipped there by sea or by air. Every now and then, shipment is late and one can face an empty shelf in stores. That's probably how it felt in communist countries back then. Usually there is a little sign saying "temporarily out of stock" indicating that you have to wait for the next shipment.

Sometime in June, our mango yogurt disappeared from the shelves of our supermarket. We survived without it for a couple of weeks then started to worry. What if they had decided not to ship it anymore to Singapore?

To reassure ourselves we did two things:

- checked every supermarket on our way and literally bought all their stock

- wrote to Emmi to ask whether they were still shipping to Singapore. We actually got an detailed answer from their Sales director confirming that two shipments were on their way.

Until then, we keep searching for our mango yogurt and even got Tess to join the effort in our desperate search for yogurt.

I know you're thinking why can't they eat another brand. Because they are not good! We tried them all and were very disappointed: too much sugar, not enough mango...

Bintan... One more time

Our company organized an off-site event in Bintan the Thursday and Friday prior to a long weekend. 

We had two options: decline and plan a long weekend somewhere nice - which is easy to find in south east Asia; or attend and spend the weekend there. We decided to stay even if it meant going back to the same place we had been two months earlier. 

We packed everything and had Tess joining so we could literally transformed this corporate event into a family trip with Oskar.

While I was not sure how this would work out, it turned out to be a great idea. We could join the event peacefully and not miss seeing Oskar after "work". We even managed to get him to the beach during the break before dinner.

The second day we had breakfast with him and colleagues. Obviously he was the center of the attention of all the girls.

While Wolfram went for archery I took him for a walk under the palm trees.

Later in the day I went snorkeling and saw a lot of funny fish but no Nemo unfortunately. I guess that he was too busy to wait for me to swim my way to the corals near the big rocks.

On Friday we changed hotel going back to Angsana where we had stayed last time. The one of the event was fully booked so we had to find an alternative and I'm not complaining about the choice: we just went back to Angsana.

This time with Oskar very keen to walk, we explore more of the place, we spent lots of time in the pool with him and also in the sea.

Once Oskar warmed up to the idea of the sea and the waves, he didn't want to leave. The Brinton genes are showing up :)

Wolfram, as usual, turned into the red version of himself, which you only get to see at the beach. Oskar did offer his dad his sun cream but the offer was declined. 

Fair enough Oskar's total protection cream is French and not Nivea.

Duo

It's not that easy to take a picture of Oskar with Wolfram with:
- both of them looking at the camera

- both of them smiling

- both of them standing still

- both of them looking in the same direction

They gave everything and rewarded me with a collection of great pictures.

River Safari

It took a while but we finally made it to the River Safari, the latest attraction from the Singapore zoo complex. In our defense, we wanted to go there with visitors given even if there are many things to do in Singapore, the number is still limited. Then there was no visitors for a while, and when they came there was haze or a birth. Lots of good excuses.
Until a few weeks back when a colleague mentioned that on a certain Saturday of July he had free tickets and offered that we join him and his wife and son. We, of course, accepted the offer.
The River Safari is like a mini zoo. Its biggest attraction is the River Safari, a boat tour that takes you through the wild and let you see lots of animals. Unfortunately kids have to be at least 1.06m high, meaning Oskar could not join and therefore neither of us. We will do it next year, when Oskar is tall enough :)
We could not take the boat tour, but we visited the rest of the park.
We saw alligators (or crocodiles) although they were much smaller in real than on the pictures.

We did not see the giant Chinese Salamander. The vivarium was empty. I still wonder how big / small is a giant Chinese Salamander.
We saw the red pandas. They reminded more of a fox or a cat than a panda, but apparently they are the original panda... so says the sign.

We saw THE two pandas of Singapore, gift of China to Singapore. Those two arrived in Singapore pretty much at the same time as us. It seems they have accommodated pretty well in their temperature controlled building.
I'm sure I must have said after Beijing zoo that I had taken enough pictures of pandas, but what can I say. They are cute and it's impossible to resist.
Kai Kai, the male panda busy eating bamboo

Jia Jian, the female panda who likes to walk around as if on a catwalk.

The fake panda, available 24/7 for pictures.

We saw a lot of fish... not as many as in the aquarium but way more than I anticipated. Oskar was delighted and Tess was kindly pointing out those which would be excellent after a little steaming.
And we saw squirrel monkeys, small monkeys that behave very similarly to squirrels. They were entertaining the visitors by jumping and flying in the air.

Or fighting with each other

 Or taking a selfie.

This was a very nice day. I believe Oskar enjoyed some of it and was so exhausted he fell nearly fell asleep during his dinner. We should take out the little guy more often :)

A big thank you to Syd for inviting us!

Douce France

It's been 10 years that I am not living in France anymore and still it seems I cannot get used to work on July 14th.
It does not matter that I get a day off at another time when it is the National day of the country where I live. Everything in me refuses to work on July 14th.
Maybe I should start taking this day off and relax on Bastille day.

This year we are going

In 2012, we had just arrived in Singapore and no idea about it so we were too late for tickets.

In 2013, Oskar was borne not even a week before so only my parents went.

In 2014, this year, there is nothing stopping us. I booked two tickets for the Formula 1 Grand Prix in September!

And I'm even more excited as Robbie Williams is coming :)))

Shoe box

Or how to kill one hour with a carton box.

Shopping with Oskar

It's the Big Singapore Sale!
Once a year, Singapore is having sales. Only once a year you could argue but people here are fine with it and are looking forward to it because of the offers. If you ask me, sales in Singapore are over rated. Biggest discount is usually 30%. Most of the times it's 20% only. And towards the end of it, if you are lucky, you can see a few 50% off... but only in a few shops.

This said, when you have to buy clothes for a growing baby, any discount is good. At the pace at which he is growing, he needs a new size every other month. He nows wear 12-18 months for pants and pajamas because 9 months ones are too short.

Shopping with Oskar is an adventure on its own.

First of all, you need to ensure that he is fed, clean and entertained. If any of the previous is not met, it's significantly impacting your shopping experience. It can even become hell if two of those are not met. Now frequency and quality of changing rooms in malls have an impact on total evaluation of a mall. A mall or food court with a nice changing rooms is more likely to see us again vs. one that has a poor one.

Next is accessibility. Too many shops are too small to accommodate a stroller. Even kids shop have narrow aisles forcing you to give up the stroller or go somewhere else. My favorite: those with two levels and only stairs connecting them forcing you to go out, find the lift, and come back. At least I managed to get someone to bring my items to the cashier on the other levels not to have to queue twice to pay.

Last is attention. Oskar is fast. Before you know it, he is grabbing something from the shelves nearby. One day we will get stopped on the way out for shoplifting because we won't have noticed that cute little hands grabbed a toy. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't end up in jail.